The South Carolina EMS Association, South Carolina Firefighters Association, and DHEC are pleased to announce the course dates and registration link for the upcoming Emotional Trauma Life Support (ETLS) courses. The link to the course is listed below and will also provide specific information about the course. Because of the tremendous interest in this course, each organization is limited to no more than four registrants. If there are unfilled slots after 7/20/2018, registration will opened up statewide at which time organizations will also be eligible to send additional staff.

The South Carolina Firefighters’ Association and the South Carolina EMS Association are pleased to announce a joint educational opportunity for Emotional Trauma Life Support (ETLS) training for our state. This will be a collaborative effort between our associations designed to offer trauma and grief support training specific to first responders of all levels (Please see the attached course flyer for more details).

We are seeking interest in this class for scheduling purposes as spaces will be limited and it is our intent to allow as much participation as possible. As such, we ask that you respond to the survey monkey link below if you are interested in attending or if you are interested in sending a representative from your agency or department. The cost for the course is $150.00 per person and we plan to host the course(s) in early August 2018. Location(s) will be determined based on interest and will be communicated upon the conclusion of this survey. We ask that interested participants reply to the survey by no later than March 18, 2018.

Thank you for your service as first responders in South Carolina. Please help us make this educational opportunity a success and feel free to share the survey monkey link with contacts that are involved in first responder wellness and grief management. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this opportunity you should con- tact one of the personnel listed below.

I am delighted to announce that our U.S. Congress has passed legislation that includes most of the provisions of H.R. 3729 — the Comprehensive Operations, Sustainability, and Transport Act of 2017 to extend the Medicare add-ons of 2% urban, 3% rural, and the 22.6% super rural bonus payments for five additional years, retroactive to January 1, 2018.

This legislation will enable our industry to continue to deliver the essential, life-saving services that we provide 24/7 to our patients and communities. It also requires our industry to begin the process of cost reporting in 2019. Reporting the actual costs that we incur in serving our patients and communities, including day-to-day patient care, as well as the cost of preparedness in the event of a disaster, will provide the data that is needed for future modifications to the ambulance fee schedule. NAEMT will partner with other stakeholders to work with HHS to help create an appropriate methodology and system for collecting this cost data.

We deeply appreciate the commitment, leadership, and perseverance of the House Ways and Means Committee and House sponsors, Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Congresswoman Terri Sewell (D-AL), for shepherding this bill through the legislative process, and to the Senate leadership for working out a compromise to get this legislation passed.

The success of our efforts was highly dependent on the tremendous collaboration we received from the International Association of Fire Chiefs, The International Association of Firefighters, and the National Volunteer Fire Council. Together, with one voice, we advocated for this bill for many months. We are very grateful to these partners for their tireless efforts to get this legislation passed. We also thank the American Ambulance Association for their work over many years to ensure that the Medicare add-on payments continued.

We are all grateful for the outstanding efforts of those members who provided the grassroots voice for our cause. Each of you contributed to this success. Please join me in expressing a big THANK YOU to our NAEMT Advocacy Committee, NAEMT Advocacy Coordinators and all members who actively supported passage of this bill through emails, letters, phone calls and personal meetings with their congressional leaders and staff. All of us working together was truly the key to this victory.

We look forward to seeing you at our February meeting. Agenda topics will include a presentation from Sean Kaye and the EMSPIC, review of our final planning for the EMS Legislative Breakfast event coming up in March, reports from the EMS Workforce Sustainability Subcommittees and more.

As some of you may have heard the Medicare add-on payments of 2 percent urban, 3 percent rural, and the 22 percent super rural expired as of December 31st 2017.

There is still a chance that these additional payments can be reinstated, but your help is needed. Please contact your federal legislators and let them know the importance of these payments. Congress needs to hear our support for this vital funding. Please take time to do so using the link(s) below. This process should only take a few minutes and is desperately needed.

For background regarding the history of the add-on’s:

To ensure access to ambulances for patients in rural areas, the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act increased payments by 2 percent for rural ground ambulance services and also included a super rural payment for counties in the lowest 25 percent in population density. Congress, in the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act, raised this adjustment to 3 percent for rural ambulance providers. Congress appropriately decided that these additional rural payments were necessary and important because rural ambulance providers incur higher per-trip costs because of longer travel distances and fewer transports of patients. These provisions ensure that ambulance services are more appropriately reimbursed and that beneficiaries in rural and super rural areas will have access to emergency transport services.

Here are two helpful links on the matter from the AAA and NAEMT that include more background on the situation and some easy ways to reach out to your legislator:

The Savvik 12 Days of Christmas promotion is off to a great start! We want to make sure that your group gets the registration so they have a chance to win. If you could, please forward the below message (make sure the link is included) to your membership along with your logo and feel free to edit your message so that your members can enter.

There is over $10,000 worth of prizes that we are giving away in just a few days.